Non Comm 2008 Report

Last weekend, I attended the Philly Non-Commvention, a gathering of community radio music programmers and their accordant promotion people, and music artists. These are the radio people formerly known as "granola." WXPN, Philadelphia hosted the event and other attendees included folks from WFUV, New York; WJCU, Cleveland; KSUT, Ignacio; Maine Public Radio; WFHB, Bloomington; KTBG, Warrensburg; KUT, Austin; KDHX, St. Louis and many others I am spacing on. I was there promoting and gathering content for this blog of course.

Shows

The most astonishing show of this year's convention was The Hold Steady. Ingrid Michaelson was immediately impressive with her GIANT setlist and memorable hooks. Astrid Williamson, Dr. John, Jakob Dylan and Interscope's "interesting" Carney were among the other bands we checked out.

Below is a bit of vid I took Paddy Casey performing a morning showcase in the hotel. The nighttime music was at the fantastic World Cafe Live facility. Vibes to Bruce, Dan, Quyen, Roger and all at WXPN for putting on a great conference and 15 years of growth for the station in general.

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Swag

The swag at the conference was unfortunately, lacking. As many public and community radio stations get larger items to use during fund drives, the convention package still only includes cds (in a promo knapsack). Reprise/WB Records sponsored a t shirt.

In the convention bag, there were cds from: Dr. John; A Taste of Triple A Sampler #42; "Sweet" by Pacifika; WTMD, Towson's Live CD; a Rykodisc sampler that promised to make the next 25 years "as storied as our first"; Peter Buffett's "Imaginary Kingdom" -- isn't he a new ager? I would love that stuff to come back. Kitaro was the first artist I promoted.

Back to the bag: FMQB Progressions Sampler #113; "Within" by Alyssa; Live Volume 2 from KTBG, which amazingly features Snoopy on the cover! WXPN Local Vol. 2; the Ike Reilly album; a great sampler from SonyBMG Legacy/Commercial Music Group ("This sampler goes to track 11"); the latest from Rachael Sage, Chandelier. She will break through at some point... Rachael Sage seems to have an endless ability to promote herself, which is a great talent to have these days.

Finally, Scarecrow Collection's "Radio Frequency Disaster" had a sticker affixed saying "#1 on Sirius Ch. 17" and "Nominated for a Jammy." They went for adds June 9.

Jefferson Pepper's American Evolution had a nice package I haven't opened yet that amazingly, had a quote from Cashbox on it! I thought they were out of biz!

Also on the old school tip, Jacqui Naylor is being promoted by Harvey Leeds, now indie and Michael Plen had a sampler from his Shangri-La Music included in the package. Full Disclosure: I'm old school and was there promoting Amie Miriello alongside Danny Buch.

Has anyone seen the t shirt w/the picture of a stegosaurus on it? The caption reads, "All My Friends Are Dead."